Tom Llamas is less than a month away from making history…
The 45-year-old Cuban-American journalist will officially take over the NBC Nightly News anchor desk from Lester Holt on Monday, June 2, becoming the first Latino to anchor a major network’s English-language evening news broadcast.
Holt‘s final evening in the anchor chair will be on May 30.
Holt announced in February that he’d be stepping down from his role after 10 years. He’ll remain with the network as full-time anchor of Dateline NBC.
Llamas, who returned to the network in 2021, will also serve as managing editor, as Holt did.
Llamas also will continue to anchor Top Story, NBC News Now’s signature nighttime show that runs from 7-8 p.m. ET.
World News Tonight with David Muir remains at the top of the ratings.
In naming Llamas to the role, NBC News noted that he helped introduce the network “to a new generation of viewers” on NBC News Now, which has a younger audience than the traditional network.
He’ll be the youngest anchor at any of a network evening news broadcast.
CBS switched anchors on CBS Evening News earlier this year, with John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois succeeding Norah O’Donnell.
The show also has taken a different approach to the traditional, headline-driven broadcast, placing more of an emphasis on correspondent storytelling. But the ratings have been down vs. a year ago.
